2028 Toyota Celica: Everything We Know About the Return of Toyota’s Affordable Sporty Car

What It Is

For those of us who have been around the sun several dozen times, it’s hard to believe the Celica has been gone for 20 or so years. From the 1970s into 2006, the Celica name adorned an alluring selection of Toyota coupes, from economy models to turbocharged, all-wheel-drive dirt-ripping rally cars.

Why It Matters

Toyota now appears to be bringing the Celica back—but unlike with the brand’s other sports coupes, all evidence indicates Toyota won’t outsource its engineering or design this time to BMW or Subaru. We hope the new Celica will indeed be a home-grown effort, and in our opinion, it’s about damn time. Considering the miracle transformation of former dullmobiles like the Camry and Corolla into cars that are actually interesting to drive, we wonder why Toyota hasn’t done this sooner.

Platform and Powertrain

The other big question, of course, is what will power it? Most automakers have leaned into electric powertrains for sports cars, because there’s no better way to get massive speed without killing your corporate fuel-economy average. For the Celica, we suspect Toyota will do what Toyota does best: a hybrid powertrain. And that makes sense—historically, Celicas used new but proven technology, like four-valve heads and turbochargers, to make power. Toyota told British publication Autocar that a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is the most likely powerplant, presumably from the new G20E engine family. With a turbocharger and electrification—and the need to top the existing GR Corolla’s 300 horsepower—we can’t imagine the new Celica boasting anything less than 400 hp, with headroom for plenty more.

Although past Celicas have featured front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive, we expect that whatever the output of the new Celica’s powertrain, it will be distributed to all four of the wheels, a tribute to the nameplate’s WRC rallying heritage and a necessity in this day of dual-motor electric sports cars. And we do expect the new Celica will go rallying, as that’s an important element to the marketing of a sports car like this in countries outside of North America.

It’s debatable whether there has ever been an ugly Celica, and we expect the new one to be a classic sports-car-sexy looker. We imagine lots of muscly, bulbous curves, a throwback to the fourth- and sixth-generation Celicas of the late 1980s and early ’90s, but with a great deal more character. And if Toyota doesn’t bring back the pop-up headlights that were a Celica mainstay from the ’80s and ’90s, then perhaps it doesn’t deserve the Celica.

What’s even more interesting here is the seeming resurgence of the classic Japanese sports coupe. We’ve all but given up on cars ever regaining their dominance over SUVs, but Honda has recently brought back the Prelude, as one example. (And if our predictions about the Celica are correct, this will be very much a classic Honda vs. Toyota showdown, with the former favoring agility and the latter favoring power.) Nissan has never lost faith, keeping the Z in its ranks despite dwindling sales, though the 200/240SX was the real Prelude/Celica competitor. How about it, Nissan? Mitsubishi could use the platform to revise the Eclipse, and if Mazda could just lop a couple doors off the Mazda 3 and give us a new MX-6 … and while we’re at it, Hyundai, you don’t still happen to have the stampings for the old Tiburon lying around for a Korean competitor in this pool, do you?

Estimated Price: $45,000

Expected On-Sale Date: Mid-to-late 2027